General

Pakistan fooled by bogus anti-India Wikileaks cables

Pakistani media reported on the false documents as confirming beliefs about its regional arch-rival

Fake WikiLeaks cables containing anti-Indian propaganda fooled Pakistani newspapers, which published reports on the cables as if they were real. The purported cables contained information confirming many right-wing Pakistani views and conspiracy theories about their regional arch-rival. The fake cables notably claimed that U.S. diplomats believed former Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor is “an incompetent combat leader and rather a geek,” and that India was guilty of war crimes in Kashmir. Another army chief had apparently been described as “an egotist, self-obsessed, petulant and idiosyncratic general, a braggadocio and a show-off, who has been disliked (and barely tolerated) by all his subordinates.” The fake cables are believed to have been planted by Pakistani intelligence. The Guardian, which has access to all of the 250,000 leaked Wikileaks cables, said that an extensive search of the database had found nothing to match any of the claims in the Pakistani media.

BBC News

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